A preservation assessment of the museum's 35,000 linear feet of materials related to Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry. Collection highlights include correspondence and work of early pioneers in natural history such as John James Audubon; 500 maps dating from 1671 to 1988; 3,000 catalogued works of art, including engravings from Civil War newspapers and propaganda posters from World War I and World War II; and 1,800 pieces of bound and unbound sheet music spanning the early 19th to 20th centuries.

If approved, the National Endowment for the Humanities Preservation Assistance Grant would fund a preservation assessment by a professional consultant of the archival collections of The Charleston Museum, the manner in which the collections are housed, stored and catalogued, and the physical space in which they are kept. The assessment would help guide both short- and long-term planning for preservation, housing and environmental matters. The project for which this support is requested will focus specifically on the archival collections and the area in which they are housed. The Archives contains over 35,000 linear feet of items – books and pamphlets, maps and blueprints, manuscripts and other documents, photographic materials of all types, postcards, sheet music, prints and drawings, newspapers and various other ephemera. In accordance with the Museum’s mission, these are primarily related to Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry.